Tom Jackson, former postal union leader, dies aged 78

Tom Jackson, the former postal workers' leader who rose to public prominence during a national strike in 1971, died yesterday aged 78.

Mr Jackson was a leading figure in the labour movement during the Sixties and Seventies and led 200,000 postal workers in a seven-week strike over pay that cost the Post Office £25m.

He rallied the strikers at the start of the dispute with a challenge to "show our determination to fight for what we believe to be right".

Educated at Leeds University, Mr Jackson was chairman of the city's Labour League of Youth and was also Labour Party secretary in the Leeds ward. Leeds University offered Mr Jackson an honorary degree in 1995 but he refused to accept it.

He joined the Post Office in 1939 at the age of 24, becoming an official of the Union of Postal Workers, and was elected to the union's executive in 1955. He became national chairman in 1962 and was appointed general secretary five years later, a position he filled for 17 years before retiring to Yorkshire in 1982.

Billy Hayes, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, which succeeded the Union of Postal Workers, paid tribute yesterday to Mr Jackson: "He was a huge character who made a vast impression on the postal service and was a great representative of postal workers everywhere."

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, called Mr Jackson "one of the Labour movement's gentlemen, one of our most recognised leaders and always a distinctive, larger-than-life character."

Mr Barber added: "He led his union with great integrity, particularly through the long and difficult post office dispute. Tom won respect and was held in warm regard by everyone who knew him."

Mr Jackson suffered a stroke two weeks ago and died at a nursing home in his home town of Ilkley, Yorkshire.